To the Reader.

Beloved and well-meaning Reader, original: "welmeenende Lefer." A standard 17th-century polite address, implying a reader who approaches the text with a sincere and open heart. this following little treatise will be useful and of service to all well-meaning and God-seeking hearts, especially for those who, in these last apostate original: "afvallighe." Refers to apostasy, or a period where many people are seen to have fallen away from the true faith—a common concern in 17th-century religious writing. times of the world, might still be concerned as to where the true Church or Congregation of God Ghemeente Gods: often used by spiritualists and radical reformers to distinguish their spiritual community from the institutional, state-sanctioned church. is to be found, since there are now so many and various ones, of which one cries out, "look, here," and another, "look, there is Christ." This little book treats of which is the true Church or congregation of God, and all that a human being must do and suffer in order to enter into it, and to become a living stone A biblical reference to 1 Peter 2:5: "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." of the same.

For since it is true that our first parents, Adam and Eve, through disobedience and transgres-